Up early this morning. J-F wants to show us the Wednesday market in the center of Sanaray. This is a large market combining food, flowers, clothing, and household products and draws substantial crowds of tourists, as well as locals from the surrounding towns. The entire main street along the shore line of tethered boats, is closed to traffic and hundreds of vendors display their wares. It is beautiful, bustling, where friends bump into each other, while others sit down to gossip and catch up in-between shopping chores. It's not quite as beautiful as the the market in Nice, but it is still mighty impressive. I took loads of photos.
At a vendor of olives, there were lots of various tapenades available beyond the usual black and green spreads. There were sun dried tomatoes and a really delicious tapenade of asparagus. Samples were also available of outstanding cheeses and charcutrie.
This wonderful display of men's hats made me succumb to temptation.
Bundles of wild fennel, a popular herb used to flavor Provencal dishes
Fresh chickens in France are very special. At one point, I passed a butcher that specialized in horse meat, which has been in the news of late. It certainly looked as lean as I had read about. One customer was in intense conversation about her selection with the butcher.
Oysters!
A spectacular display of spices
The French are geniuses when it comes to bread
Dried Fruit
These tomatoes looked luscious
This paella disappeared fast
There were a number of fish mongers selling a wide variety of
fish plus local fisherman's stands selling the day's catch
You could smell these strawberries from five stalls away!
After a strenuous few hours of diligent shopping, where I bought a belt, a hat, an oilcloth tablecloth for my patio table and a few gifts to bring home, I was ready for a good lunch. J-F found us an outdoor table looking on to the final minutes and breakdown of the market.
Mac Syms for lunch
John and I had our usual bottle of local Rose, but today we had a half bottle instead. The local roses are so outstanding with food, and are now plentiful and worth seeking out in US wine shops. Mac Syms was packed with lunchers wanting a good meal in the gorgeous sunshine. All the cold bluster of Paris is now forgotten. The restaurant offered two lunch specials and J-F and I chose them. He ordered the steak, while I was drawn to the fish, in this case Dorade, a mild white fish that was baked and served with a tasty leek-butter sauce. Local restaurants like to pack on lots of different things on the plate, so I had a molded cup of rice, a medley of yellow broad beans, yellow zucchini, and small fresh limas, as well as a slice of carrot mousse with an assertive amount of nutmeg. John's colorful, bountiful Normandy-style salad was a huge mixture of lettuce, hard-boiled egg wedges, tomatoes, warmed camembert cheese, and slices of mortadella, ham, salami, apple, Asian pear and roasted red peppers!
We split two desserts--a surprisingly hefty dish of creme brulee and tart tatin with whipped cream and rum ice cream. Talk about exuberant!
John's salad
We've been watching CNN, SKY and BBC-TV. But the most interesting network, one with the widest number of stories is Aljezeera. We should have as wide a variety of truly interesting international news available as it is here.
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